Let's find my dad a job!

[RoJoHen]

Scenario:

My dad's company just got bought out by a different company, and he is very likely to be losing his job in the next month or two. He has been working for this company for over 30 years and makes a very good salary.

The only job my dad has ever applied for was to be a dishwasher at the Village Inn Pancake House when he was 16. This was in the 1970s. His current job was given to him by a friend, and he stuck with it and worked his way up through the ranks.

Now, after 30 years with this company, he is looking to move on to something else. He has been wanting to leave for a few years, but now the situation is being forced on him by the takeover.

The problem:

My dad has absolutely no idea how to apply for a job. He doesn't have a resume (he has never needed one), and he is clueless about how to search for jobs in this new computer age. He still types with two fingers, has no idea how to use MS Office, and just got his very first email address about a month ago. His company is still using old iMac computers that I installed for them when I was a teenager (maybe 15 years ago?).

So, basically, I have no idea what to do with him. It's hard because I live 3 hours away, so I can't just pop in and type up a resume for him, and my mom is almost as clueless about this as he is. She's been teaching in the same school district for almost 20 years.

I want to help him out. Any job he gets is likely to be a dramatic decrease in salary, which sucks, but in this job market, I'm afraid for his ability to get hired at all, especially as someone who is damn near 60 years old.

 

[auntiehill]

What is his current job? What's his education level? What are his skills?

 

[RoJoHen]

He has been working at a meat packing plant for the last 30 years, spending most of that time as the Assistant General Manager. He is in charge of things like purchasing, inventory, and sales. He has no education beyond high school (never needed it before). As for skills...I honestly don't know. My experience with him outside of work usually involved a lot of grocery shopping and cutting the grass.

 

[CorporalClegg]

You could still help him with his resume.

He would have to be on the phone with you and give you all the pertinent information. But you could still do all the typing/formatting.

Then when you're finished with it, you could either email it to him or buy a small, inexpensive flash drive and mail it to him.

He could take the flash drive to Kinko's. I believe they do resume specific printing there.

But pretty much any job he would apply for is probably going to ask for a standard application.

Have him gather up all his contact information and workout some sort of "job history;" each promotion he had within his friend's company can be listed as a new "job." Then just have a short summery of each one.

He also might want to make a list of all would-be references. Have him (or do it yourself) type all this out.

Find someone (or a few people) to right him a generically worded reference letter and make several copies.

Put all of this into a manilla folder or small briefcase that he can carry around with him. Then simply start thinking about the type of places he might want to work.

Also, keep in mind job fairs are really popular right now, and usually employers at those fairs prefer experience to everything else.

 

[auntiehill]

He has been working at a meat packing plant for the last 30 years, spending most of that time as the Assistant General Manager. He is in charge of things like purchasing, inventory, and sales. He has no education beyond high school (never needed it before). As for skills...I honestly don't know. My experience with him outside of work usually involved a lot of grocery shopping and cutting the grass.

He has management experience, knows purchasing and ordering, maintaining inventory and selling the product. That's quite a few skills right there. He'd be able to move those skills into several places: warehouse management, grocery stores, retail, manufacturing, etc.

 

[Brolan]

If your Dad is not good at job hunting he needs to get help from those that are. Get a professional resume writer to do his resume.

Once he has the resume he needs to use a resume distribution service like Resume Spider to get it out there. Note that the most important people to include on the distribution list are not the industries that might employ him, but the consultant "headhunters" that have an interest in finding him a job.

He also might want to hire a Career Coach.

 

[JiNX-01]

A couple of questions:
Where do your parents live?
Are they willing to relocate?
Is there a government-run employment office that provides resources in job searches?

 

[RoJoHen]

If your Dad is not good at job hunting he needs to get help from those that are.

Considering he hasn't even attempted to search for a job since the 1980s, no, I don't think he is particularly skilled in that area.

A couple of questions:
Where do your parents live?
Are they willing to relocate?
Is there a government-run employment office that provides resources in job searches?

They're in the Chicago suburbs, and relocation is not an option, at least not until my mom retires...in about 7 years.

I'm not really worried about this situation, per se. Even if my dad is unemployed, they will be able to survive just fine on my mom's salary.

I just know my dad, and I know that after this long, he is not going to want to settle for "just another job." He wants to venture into a new career path (he is convinced that he wants to work well into his 80s), and I just don't know how somebody his age does that.

 

[FPAlpha]

If your Dad is not good at job hunting he needs to get help from those that are.

Considering he hasn't even attempted to search for a job since the 1980s, no, I don't think he is particularly skilled in that area.

A couple of questions:
Where do your parents live?
Are they willing to relocate?
Is there a government-run employment office that provides resources in job searches?

They're in the Chicago suburbs, and relocation is not an option, at least not until my mom retires...in about 7 years.

I'm not really worried about this situation, per se. Even if my dad is unemployed, they will be able to survive just fine on my mom's salary.

I just know my dad, and I know that after this long, he is not going to want to settle for "just another job." He wants to venture into a new career path (he is convinced that he wants to work well into his 80s), and I just don't know how somebody his age does that.

Being the realist we all know your dad will have it very hard to find a decent job.. no higher education, no computer skills and his age.

He has experience though but to what degree a company will hire him only on that remains to be seen. He should try to stick in his general branch and see if other companies have open positions.. send out some resumes into the blue and see what comes back.

Good luck.

 

[Australis]

Your Dad is an Assistant General Manager. Management skills have to count for something. Play that card to the max, people skills, budget skills, logistics, that kind of thing. And if he's held a job that long, he's been doing it right.

The impression I get is that job hunting is very tough right now. But he has his skills, push 'em hard, and good luck to both of you.

 

[RevDMV]

As said, good management skills are valuable.

It is hard to believe that he's involved in purchasing, inventory and sales; but has no computer skills. IF he want to keep working, that's a place for him to start working on upgrading.

 

[clint g]

A decent place to start is USAjobs.gov. It's where the Federal Government posts it's job listings and as others have said, managerial experience is always in demand.

 

[RoJoHen]

As said, good management skills are valuable.

It is hard to believe that he's involved in purchasing, inventory and sales; but has no computer skills. IF he want to keep working, that's a place for him to start working on upgrading.

He and my mom just took some Excel classes at the library.

Things is, the company itself is just so behind the times. When the new people came in and took over, they couldn't believe how antiquated their whole system was. The owner was basically just riding it out until retirement, and therefore never saw any real need to upgrade anything.

 

[Drago-Kazov]

Does he know aboutyou posting this?

 

[Yoda]

Work till he's 80? I don't think I'll ever have a job I'd like that much. My advice, skip the job search and uhh, have him learn to play piano or something.

 

[Finn]

^not even if it's related to something you have a passion for?

 

[SmoothieX]

My dad currently resides in an urn in my mom's closet. I'm sure he'd make a great executive paperweight.

He probably has a better chance of finding a job than Mr. Rojo from the sounds of it.

 

[Holdfast]

He has been wanting to leave for a few years...

To do what?

That's probably the best starting point for developing a plan of attack. What does he actually want to do? Does he definitely want a job now? Does he actually need a new job? What sort of severance package is he likely to get?

Getting a new job will likely depend heavily on his level of motivation to acquire very boring new (to him) skills and to aggressively job hunt and sell himself.

If he's only half-heartedly interested in something new (which is possible, given he's been thinking about leaving for years but didn't do it from what you've said), then it will be very challenging.

If he is highly motivated, and has an idea about what he wants to do next, then he can go about acquring or demonstrating the necessary skills and (assuming the plan involves being an employee) putting a resume together and actually applying.

There's a way to go before then, and some big questions for him to think and decide about first.

 

[RoJoHen]

That's really the problem, Holdfast. He doesn't have any kind of dream career or anything. He's been wanting to leave his current job, but I don't think he ever planned to do it. He was just waiting it out until he could retire. Unfortunately, the new company has forced his hand. He doesn't need a new job right away, but he will probably need one eventually.

 

[Holdfast]

Well, the bright side is he's now got the chance to think about what he would like to do before rushing out and applying for jobs. With (presumably) the pressure of having a young family to provide for no longer there, he's got room to manoeuvre and think about what really matters to him now: is it role, salary, hours, skill set, etc, etc?

He might not have had a dream role (I hesistate to use the word career, with its particular implications) in mind up to now, but he's probably also never really been put in a situation where he's had to think about it. So there's a silver lining of opportunity here, if he can muster up the mental flexibility to look at it that way and start thinking about options/roles. I wouldn't be too pushy too quickly, is all I'm saying.